Design and the Public Good: the next steps

The launch of Design and the Public Good on 2nd March was a landmark day in terms of the sheer number of designers that gathered inside Parliament, and created new momentum on which we now have to capitalise.

We have had positive responses and interesting feedback from many quarters on our ten recommendations. Some have introduced ideas that could feed into the development – a more rigorous enforcement of IP and design rights in the procurement process.

Others have suggested ways of moving the recommendations forward – a Parliament and Whitehall-targeted exhibition of good design examples generated within the public sector. Some of the DBA’s own Effectiveness Award Winners could be prime material here. And the COI has recently done a bit of repositioning with a more flexible procurement offer.

In terms of engagement with government, the election has predictably had a slightly disrupting effect. MPs are distracted, and we will have to redouble efforts to communicate the report’s goals to all parties after May 6th.

In theory the ground is fertile for a take-up of these ideas. Whoever forms the next government will be casting about for some fresh thinking on how to solve the multiple challenges facing the public sector and society more broadly. Both Labour and Conservative business policy is pro-SME. Both give lip-service to the economic importance of supporting the new creative and media industries as part of the holy grail that is the ‘knowledge economy’.

One hurdle in this drive is the ‘creative industries’ nametag, which lumps the design industries in with cultural and arts industries. In fact they are an entirely different beast.

In spite of the above-mentioned lip service, the Department for Culture Media and Sport seems to have run out of steam on its own Creative Economy campaign, and been minus a minister for the creative industries since Sion Simon stepped down. The Shadow DCMS team are active but in reality design has a small share in their portfolio, and the loudest discussions have recently been dominated by media policy.

If they really are to become a principle powerhouse of the economy, it’s time for a more nuanced understanding of what ‘creative industries’ means.

So, in light of these various challenges, and as a key priority, the APDIG will be assisting in the establishment of a standing Design Commission, as mooted by Barry Sheerman at the launch.

This new and much-needed body will mediate between the design industry, the Design Council, and government, its task being to oversee all further work on the report’s agenda: a refreshed manifesto for future interaction between the design industry and government.